What Country Is The Worst Offender Of Mass Production?

As a coin collector, there are several island nations that perpetually flood the market with "collector coins", minted solely as revenue generators. A lot of these are struck by private mints and distributed without ever even being entered into the issuing country. (Marshall Islands is one that immediately comes to mind)

And then there are the "faux" nations that issue "national coinage" to finance their struggle for recognition/independence, such as Trans-dniestra (eastern Moldova)

When I left stamp collecting back in the late 70's, there were several culprits of both of the above scenarios. Eastern Europe seemed to be flooding the market with way too many issues, and the "faux" nations like Ajman and Manama were emerging on the scene. (yes, I know these are recognized sheikdoms, but their stamp-issuing status was questionable, back then. Postally used material was non-existent, only CTO stuff)

So, my question is, in today's philatelic world, who are the offenders?? (granted, I know everyone seems to think that *their* country has become a supermarket of stamps, but on the global level, who are the truly worst??)

In terms of sheer volume despite a small population, Grenada (and the Grenadines) are one of the worst. Total of well over 6000 Scott numbered items for a country with total population of roughly 100,000. At least the Iron Curtain countries had sizable populations.

Of course, almost all of those Grenada stamps were postally valid. How many were actually used, well, keep in mind the population.

Regarding countries that issued stamps that weren't even used within their country, don't get me started there...

Personally, I find the small British Commonwealth Islands the worst offenders: Tristan da Cunha, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Falkland Dependencies etc. Small communities that have a population between 100 and a few 1000 and yet issue stamps as if there are 100,000 people sending letters daily.
Even worse are the South Pole territories claimed by Great Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia. There are only penguins over there. Do they need stamps?

It's not only the sheer number of issues these days, it's also the many different formats and printers for a particular issue, not to mention the many issues that don't really commemorate anything (Greetings stamps, Love stamps, etc.).

Canada, USA, and GB are all offenders regarding this.

Linns once ran a yearly break down on these offenders, it may be included in the Linn's Stamp Almanac. But Grenada & the Grenadines are amoung the worst offenders. I recall Guyana was bad at one time.

Mike

If it has a "Certificate of Authenticity" it's a guaranteed rip off!

There used to be a "black list" of superfluous issues. I don't know if it's around anymore given the plethora of such issues.

Don't you like my educated use of polysyllable words?

Yeah, it's called the worldwide catalog of stamps 1960-2010.

Aland (pronounced oo-land), has 35 000 subscribers to their collector's subscription service. I understand the population is much smaller than that.

The challenge with any of these countries is to get the stamps postally used!

David

It's one reason I only collect early issues

The US? The forever stamps invasion

I agree that the issuing of stamps other than for postage (definitives) and true commemoratives is terrible. The poster who mentioned the "love", "greetings" stamps was correct.

In the area of the US, I particularly dislike sheets of 50 different stamps for flags, birds, flowers, wonders of America (in two different denominations no less). All these simply inflate the number of issues without being needed. Oh, they are pretty and all that, but come on.

I tend to agree, however , It would be a nice challenge to try to complete
these set issues postally used !

as of late ,Great Britain comes to mind with all the Smiler sheets and multiple stamps sets .
the millenium sets consists of 48 stamps and then the second sets of another 48 stamps.
These two sets are a real challenge to collect in fine used.
David(DJD)

Aland Islands population is roughly 28 000 people... However, the islands get approx. 2 million visitors (mainly during summer season) each and every year. Most of them are either finns (as Aland is part of Finland) or swedes.

As for worst offenders... Guyana, St.Vincent and Grenada.

I'm getting tired of the Canadian "P" stamps. "P" meaning perpetual. I don't see the reason for printing so many different ones. They are all difinitives, so there isn't going to be a big demand for them from collectors. If they are going to be the standard postage rate for whenever they are used, then I say, print off a dozen or so different ones, and leave it at that for at least 5 years.
There are enough designs now, they could just keep reusing the same ones. Just do a few million of a set or one design this month, and print off a different design next month. Keep doing that until they have used up 12 designs and then start over again with the first design. At least then, the collectors might be interested in doing a study with different flaws and flyspeck errors, or whatever!

You want overkill? Think of the fairly recent U.S. "Flag on Porch" issue -- the different varieties number somewhere in the 20s as I recall.